Everyone loves Baby Yoda. The tiny star of Disney Plus’ The Mandalorian has become one of the most loved aspects of the show, whether he’s cutely playing with the controls of the Mandalorian’s ship or using the Force on a rampaging Mudhorn. Despite being suspicious when I initially saw him at the conclusion of the first episode, he quickly wormed his way into my heart. When it looked like he was in trouble last week, I was practically yelling at the Mandalorian to get out of his ship and go save him from mean old Mr Herzog.
With all that going on, you’d expect Disney of all companies to be on point when it comes to Baby Yoda merchandising. After all, the little guy is literally toy-sized and cute as a button. But, in a very uncharacteristic move, his popularity has apparently come as a huge surprise to them.
Caught on the hop, they announced that some Baby Yoda merchandise would be available before Christmas, but it’s just been announced that this will consist of a couple of T-shirts and a mug. Presumably, these items are all they could get made on very short notice.
It’s such a missed opportunity that you have to imagine someone at Disney merchandising is getting the hairdryer treatment from their boss. They’ve known what Baby Yoda looked like since early in the year, giving them more than enough time to schedule production of a toy for Christmas. Said toy may well have been the hot holiday item of 2019, too, but will now end up coming out sometime in 2020 after the first season of the show is over and the character’s hot moment has passed.
My bet is that with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker out in a few weeks, the merchandising team was so focused on that they simply didn’t consider The Mandalorian as a potential moneymaking dream. Again, what a missed opportunity.
